‘Ouija’ Trailer: This Game of Horrors Is About to Start

The 'Ouija' trailer is exactly what you'd expect from a movie based on a board that claims to put its players in touch with the dead. There's the cast of blank-faced teens who get in over their heads, a murder mystery to be solved, and many, many shots of ghosts suddenly appearing in the frame to make the (predominately pre-teen) audience scream and throw their popcorn in the air.

The trailer (which premiered, rather inexplicably, on the 'Pretty Little Liars' Facebook page) sells the kind of horror movie we've seen countless times before. Looking a lot like the 'Insidious' films without director James Wan's sense of style, 'Ouija' wears its board game origins as a badge of honor, making this the 'Battleship' of haunted house movies. So, uh, take that as you will.

The film is the directorial debut of special effects veteran and screenwriter Stiles White (his credits include 'Boogeyman' and 'The Possession') and we hope his finished film is more fresh and original than the preview makes it appear. We also hope the cast, led by 'Bates Motel' star Olivia Cooke, isn't so painfully generic in the final cut. Right now, 'Ouija' looks like a horror movie made for 14-year-olds who haven't seen too many horror movies.

'Ouija' arrives in theaters on October 24, just in time for Halloween.